Can psychosocial work factors influence psychologists' positive mental health?

BACKGROUND: Working in healthcare can entail intense emotional demands that increases susceptibility to occupational risk factors. Psychosocial risk assessment can contribute to promoting awareness of the effects of work on positive mental health. AIMS: To explore and analyse the influence of psychosocial work factors on positive mental health among psychologists. METHODS: A cross-sectional study of 339 psychologists was conducted. Two instruments were used for data collection: the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF) to assess well-being and the Health and Work Survey (INSAT) to assess psychosocial work factors. RESULTS: This study identified psychosocial work factors that affect psychologists' positive mental health, namely, emotional well-being was affected by 'Need help from colleagues' (ß = -1.091), 'Have no one I can trust' (ß = -1.253) and 'Complex work' (ß = 0.751); psychological well-being was affected by 'Intense work pace' (ß = 1.151), 'Not able to participate in decisions' (ß = -3.695) and 'Complex work' (ß = 1.520); and social well-being was affected by 'Always changing roles and tasks' (ß = -1.810) and 'Not able to participate in decisions' (ß = -2.470). CONCLUSIONS: Psychosocial work factors such as work organization, work relationships and emotional demands influence psychologists' positive mental health. Social support at the workplace and having challenging and autonomous work can promote mental health. It is important to develop better organizational practices to promote mental health and well-being among these professionals.

Clinical and metabolic implications of obesity in prostate cancer: is testosterone a missing link?

Objectives: To assess sex hormones in men with obesity and prostate cancer (PCa) and to study association between androgens and the pathogenesis biology of PCa in vitro. Subjects and methods: One hundred and eighty-one men older than 45 years selected from of a population attending to Urology departments screening for PCa, (78 participants without PCa and 103 patients with PCa). All participants were assessed for body mass index (BMI), age, Gleason score, and PSA. Endocrine profile was determined for LH, total testosterone (TT), 17ß-estradiol (E2), prolactin and leptin. Biochemical profile (HbA1c, triacylglycerols and lipoproteins) was also determined. In vitro experiments were also performed, involving the study of 5α-dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and E2 in the presence of adipocyte-conditioned medium (aCM). Results: All variables were continuous and described a Gaussian distribution unless mentioned. To determine the relation of aggressiveness, variable were transformed into categories. Thus, PCa aggressiveness is associated with the increase of age and BMI (p < .0001) but with is decreased with TT and E2 (p < .05). Moreover, adipocyte-secreted molecules increase aggressiveness of PCa cells in vitro. Lastly, DTH but not E2 enables invasiveness in vitro. Conclusions: It was observed a coexistence of hormone axis profile alteration with sex hormones and BMI in PCa patients, in accordance with the new perspective of PCa pathogenesis.